Hawker Hurricanes around the world

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

 

 

Have you been using Elmers School Glue? The stuff they give to pre-schoolers to stick paper together?

 

 

 

Chris

Thats one of the types I've tried, but I've tried Testors canopy glue, Micro Kristal Klear among others. My limited experience with the Elmer's woodworking glue (3 years construction). Is that it doesn't dry clear but tan/brown to blend in with wood. 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

19 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

It makes the canopy much clearer, how I'm not exactly sure. Probably by removing/filling in blemishes. You can sand blemishes out with fine sanding sticks and this will restore clarity as well. Ive actually dipped canopies both ways dip first then paint, or paint then dip. It doesn't effect the paint assuming the paint is cured. Ive also found a dipped canopy is less prone to fogging when glued in place, I currently use Tamiya extra thin on canopies but have used gel superglue to spot glue canopies and have had no fogging after dipping them.
       Drying relies on ambient humidity and temperature, the warmer and drier a room is the quicker it will dry. I usually give it 2-3 days in the drying box in my house. I forget to add that i use cut lengths of sprue to rest the canopies on so the touch a minimum of surface while drying. The pledge can act like a glue if it adheres to something. Not hard to break the connection if it happens but best to avoid it if possible. 

 

 

18 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

as Kleer/Pedge etc is self levelling, it makes for a smoother surface, and, as you surmise,  this means 'filling/levelling' the clear parts, so they become smoother, and thus optically  clearer    Anyway,  the point is, it works. 

 

Unless you really need a strong joint, high grade woodworking PVA works well,  I use a 5 minute fast grab waterproof  PVA, but I already had it for woodworking jobs.   Can also be used to fill the gaps.  Microscale Krital Kleer is basically posh PVA which perhaps dried clearer thanstndard PVA.

Thanks for the tips, I will definitely try the Pledge on canopies soon! I brushed some onto Poland and she's looking purty!

16 hours ago, dogsbody said:

 

 

Have you been using Elmers School Glue? The stuff they give to pre-schoolers to stick paper together?

 

 

 

Chris

I've been gluing my canopies with Kristal Klear and am fairly happy with it. It works alright as a bit of a filler around the gaps between canopies and fuselage too, I find. Sometimes I do find it peels away a little bit if not careful, but I haven't had an issue with canopies holding.

 

Meanwhile, my Humbrol 29 ran out, so I've had to use something else for the dark earth on Iran and Egypt (local hobby stores are no longer carrying Humbrol). I know it's much maligned as a poor dark earth variant, but with the hairy sticks I find the Tamiya acrylics are working best for me, so I am using XF-52. 

 

I also realized in looking at pictures of Egypt and Iran that the Iran Mk IIcs (at least the 3 I found photos of) do not have landing lights. Wish I'd noticed earlier!

Also, it clearly has the cannons removed, as does Egypt. Apparently with cannons removed these ports just remained open? That somewhat surprises me but seems to be the same in all photos I can find.

Anyway, Arma has done such a nice job of the landing lights that I don't want to paint them over (although honestly the Legato lights aren't so bad either), so I'm switching which one is Iran (will be Legato now) and which one is Egypt (will be Arma now). I installed the landing lights on Iran and began sanding them back to paint over. I'm putting off installation of the navigation and landing lights on the Arma kit for now.

[Troy Smith]

34 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I found photos of) do not have landing lights. Wish I'd noticed earlier!

Also, it clearly has the cannons removed, as does Egypt. Apparently with cannons removed these ports just remained open? That somewhat surprises me but seems to be the same in all photos I can find.

Anyway, Arma has done such a nice jo

I'd suggest blanking plates, rather than removal.  The IID and IV used blanking plates.

 

Note, despite the profile, pretty though it is, The Egyptian plane look to be Day Fighter Scheme

 

I have never seen a desert scheme aircarft with a Sky band, and Day Fighter Scheme Thunderbolts were used as trainers in Egypt.

 

Most Desert scheme aircraft have the Middle Stone area through the cockpit, as seen in the Iranian pic.

43 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

but with the hairy sticks I find the Tamiya acrylics are working best for me, so I am using XF-52. 

 

 

There are mixes for Dark Earth using Tamiya.      I need to try some, most involve XF-52, which I don't have....

[dogsbody]

The last time I got down to Edmonton and hit a few hobby shops was last November. My usual round of shop visits is Great Hobbies, Hobby Wholesale, Comex Hobby in WEM and their new one on 78th. Ave, in Scona. Those are the only ones I know about. Is there anywhere else?

 

 

 

 

Chris

[ModelingEdmontonian]

21 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

Note, despite the profile, pretty though it is, The Egyptian plane look to be Day Fighter Scheme

 

I have never seen a desert scheme aircarft with a Sky band, and Day Fighter Scheme Thunderbolts were used as trainers in Egypt.

 

Most Desert scheme aircraft have the Middle Stone area through the cockpit, as seen in the Iranian pic.

Yes, at some point I read @tonyot think the camo through on Egypt and found it very convincing in terms of it being DFS as you point out. As I had already proceeded with the assumption it was desert scheme with white stripe/spinner I was going to continue as such, although now you have me second guessing!

 

45 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

Is it just me, or is there a fairly large device installed on the upper fuselage behind the cockpit? Perhaps a meteorological tool?

40 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

There are mixes for Dark Earth using Tamiya.      I need to try some, most involve XF-52, which I don't have....

Mixing paints kills my modeling joy...

[ModelingEdmontonian]

35 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

The last time I got down to Edmonton and hit a few hobby shops was last November. My usual round of shop visits is Great Hobbies, Hobby Wholesale, Comex Hobby in WEM and their new one on 78th. Ave, in Scona. Those are the only ones I know about. Is there anywhere else?

 

 

 

 

Chris

Nope, @dogsbody, those are all I know of too! Great Hobbies is my go to, but Hobby Wholesale is alright as well. Never shopped at Comex, actually, but might check them out now! 

[dogsbody]

32 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Nope, @dogsbody, those are all I know of too! Great Hobbies is my go to, but Hobby Wholesale is alright as well. Never shopped at Comex, actually, but might check them out now! 

 

There used to be a good one on the north side of The Yellowhead, just west of St. Albert Trail. The older guy who ran/owned it kept it well stocked. Then he sold it and the new owners like it go downhill real fast. A couple years later it closed. For me, it was the easiest to get to. My in-laws lived near Westlock, so on visits down there, I could quickly pop in and just as quickly get out of the city.

 

 

 

Chris

[tonyot]

deleted.

Edited June 1, 2021 by tonyot

[tonyot]

51 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Is it just me, or is there a fairly large device installed on the upper fuselage behind the cockpit? Perhaps a meteorological tool?

I think the large thing you mention is actually a thermometer mounted on top of the wing,.... for use in THUM Duties. Many Hurri`s had these for similar duties,..... but usually mounted more inboard,..... maybe they wanted it out of the slipstream?

[Graham Boak]

The Russians used quite a number of Hurricane Mk.IIc postwar for Met, work.  The only, poor quality, photo I've seen shows sensors mounted on a post coming out from the outer cannon stub on the port wing.  Presumably not directly mounted on a surviving cannon.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 hour ago, dogsbody said:

 

There used to be a good one on the north side of The Yellowhead, just west of St. Albert Trail. The older guy who ran/owned it kept it well stocked. Then he sold it and the new owners like it go downhill real fast. A couple years later it closed. For me, it was the easiest to get to. My in-laws lived near Westlock, so on visits down there, I could quickly pop in and just as quickly get out of the city.

 

 

 

Chris

Interesting. Incidentally, yesterday was my one year anniversary of coming back to the hobby as an adult, so I don't know the Edmonton model shop history like you do! When I modeled as a kid I lived in Vancouver area.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Pledge dried fast (30 degrees here yesterday which is super hot by Edmonton standards!) so applied the Poland decals. I was really happy with how well they went on this time--so either these AZ decals are better quality than they were for Argentina, or perhaps more likely the gloss coast made the difference! One cracked on me, but went back together nicely. I used decals from Airfix to supplement the insignia and serials--stencils, walkway black, and machine gun fabric. I went back and forth on the fabric over the guns, but eventually found an indication that at least one Hurricane wore it in summer 1939, so I went ahead. I put some Tamiya panel liner into the ejector ports so that they actually look like holes, but I will be keeping this really clean as the idea would be it's basically straight out of the factory. I'm assuming the NMF on the underside would be fairly shiny coming out of the factory, but on top would it be quite flat or would a satin coat be more appropriate? I suppose fabric versus metal would make a difference too.

 

[dogsbody]

Looking great!. I'm sure the underside would have been painted aluminum dope, so not natural metal.

 

Yeah, it  was hot up here, too, yesterday, 29C. Thank the deities for air conditioning!

 

 

 

Chris

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 minute ago, dogsbody said:

Looking great!. I'm sure the underside would have been painted aluminum dope, so not natural metal.

 

Yeah, it  was hot up here, too, yesterday, 29C. Thank the deities for air conditioning!

 

 

 

Chris

Oh of course, silly me. Can't have NMF fabric! Cheers

[dogsbody]

Even some of the early metal-winged Hurcs were painted with aluminum dope on the unders.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Poland's UC is on (barely). The wheel wells on this AZ kit are resin (and quite nice, really) and don't include slots for the land gear to attach to, which means they are somewhat floating in space.  This made positioning and fastening challenging and I managed to smear some CA glue behind the starboard wing ejector ports during the whole ordeal. To be fair, I get super glue where I don't want it on pretty much every model since I started using super glue, but this splotch felt nastier than most. Anyway, tried a little sanding and a little rubbing with acetone and some overpainting. I will put a bit of dull coat over top and see if it helps, but basically I'm resigned to this. It isn't the only blemish on the underwing--check out that ugly blob further out on the starboard wing. That one is AZ's fault (although I am sure more experienced modellers than I would have fixed it).

 

 

With UC on, it was outside for a satin clear coat on top. I thought she looked purty in the sun, so snapped a pic while she was still glossy.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by ModelingEdmontonian

[Troy Smith]

On 02/06/2021 at 18:59, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I'm assuming the NMF on the underside would be fairly shiny coming out of the factory, but on top would it be quite flat or would a satin coat be more appropriate? I suppose fabric versus metal would make a difference too.

Painted with aluminium dope

Yugoslav Hurricane, pre delivery in flight over Langley.  The wing joints get painted to match. 

Usually posted to show where and how the oil leaks, and how that then flows over the UC doors, making very distinctive streaks.  Note the patches doped over ejector slots.  

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Propeller (from Airfix) attached, then I glued on Poland's windshield (from Airfix) and canopy (from Arma) such that it's something like a 1/4 open cockpit (the windscreen and canopy don't match up perfectly so couldn't be closed; nor does the canopy piece fit in the fully open position). Honestly I thought it would look better than it does with the two different pieces, but the original part's fit was ridiculous.

 

I glued my make-shift antenna mast and dabbed some silver where the navigation lights are, and with that I'm calling Poland complete. RFI and an updated group photo to follow, but here she is in the backyard.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

7 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Note the patches doped over ejector slots.  

So did these only open up with the first casings coming through? Safe to assume then that all fresh out of the factory ragwings should have some fabric over the ejector slots? 

[2996 Victor]

That's looking really good, ME! Nice finish, and I think the windscreen/canopy combo works perfectly well.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[ModelingEdmontonian]

9 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

That's looking really good, ME! Nice finish, and I think the windscreen/canopy combo works perfectly well.

 

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks, Mark, I'm glad you think so! I think the windscreen either sits too high or the canopy too low such that they don't align like I wish they did. But c'est la vie and honestly this turned out much better than I expected. At one point I was considering binning it and making Poland out of an Airfix kit!

[AliGauld]

13 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Thanks, Mark, I'm glad you think so! I think the windscreen either sits too high or the canopy too low such that they don't align like I wish they did. But c'est la vie and honestly this turned out much better than I expected. At one point I was considering binning it and making Poland out of an Airfix kit!

I for one am glad that you didn't bin it as it looks excellent.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[John Masters]

This is a very fun project Troy.  I'm already liking the Egyptian bird...

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Here's Poland's RFI:

 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

21 hours ago, John Masters said:

This is a very fun project Troy.  I'm already liking the Egyptian bird...

Not Troy's project, @Troy Smith is just generously providing lots of support and advice!